Author Interview: Huntley Fitzpatrick author of My life next door

1. How did you come up with the concept for this book? 
With my book MY LIFE NEXT DOOR, I thought of a sort of Romeo and Juliet story set in a seaside town (with a happy ending). With WHAT I THOUGHT WAS TRUE, I wanted to know if two characters could find their way back into a good relationship after getting off to a bad distrustful start. 

2. How did you come up with the names for the characters? 
My daughter named Samantha Reed in MY LIFE NEXT DOOR. I came up with Jase Garrett—and actually thought I’d invented it. Very surprised to find it out there already. Gwen in WHAT I THOUGHT WAS TRUE started out as Cate, but the hero had to be Cass, so her name had to change. Also her mother was a big romantic and so I thought she’d give her daughter a name like Guinevere.

3. How much are you and the characters alike?
They all have little pieces of me but no one is me. Probably the one most like me is the red-headed troublemaker in MY LIFE NEXT DOOR—and I am not a teenaged recovering alcoholic boy with a tendency to swear. 

4. Do you read a lot and what are you reading now?
I read constantly. Usually a book a day when I’m not on deadline. I just systematically reread some of my favorite books from childhood—still loved them—Roald Dahl’s Matilda, Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt, the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. I read a lot to my kids, also. 

5. What made you decide to go Young adult? 
It just seemed a natural fit for the stories I had to tell.

6. How did the cover come about? 
I’ve been lucky to have the same talented cover artist do all three books, and she’s given them a signature look—striped spines, a couple, the type face. I’m very lucky. 

7. So what is your next project and when is it due out? 
My next project is THE BOY MOST LIKELY TO, a dual POV YA contemporary that features that redheaded boy and the girl he loves. 

8. Do you have a daytime job or are you a full time writer?
Well, I have six kids, so I have something of a constant job, but I write during the day while they are in school and sometimes into the night.

9. How did you get into writing novels and were you worried about peoples reactions to your books?
I’ve wanted to be a writer all my life, but I spent some time being an editor, which I loved. But finally, I just wanted to tell stories. I try hard not to worry too much about people’s reactions. 

10. One last thing do you collect anything personally?
Seaglass. Well, and books.

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